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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25479721">Always Choose You</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamiflame/pseuds/dreamiflame'>dreamiflame</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars Prequel Trilogy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Decoys in Love, F/F, Handmaidens, Kissing</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 12:41:13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,057</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25479721</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamiflame/pseuds/dreamiflame</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The explosion on the landing pad is a tragedy. But sometimes, a tragedy can be averted.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Cordé/Sabé (Star Wars)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Every Woman 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Always Choose You</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Narya_Flame/gifts">Narya (Narya_Flame)</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Thanks to my beta for encouraging words and quick corrections.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>They made it safely to Coruscant. Cordé let herself take a deep breath before she started down the ramp, but she knew it wasn’t time to relax yet.</p><p>She was within three steps of the landing pad when what felt to all the world like a giant hand seized her up and flung her aside. Her head hit the ground and everything started to swim.</p><p>Then human hands were on her, turning her back over, and Padmé knelt above her. “Cordé,” she said.</p><p>Cordé could barely hear her through the ringing in her ears. Everything hurt: breathing, blinking, lying there. “Milady, I’m so sorry,” she managed to say. “I failed you, Senator.”</p><p>And everything went black.</p><p>-</p><p>Cordé woke up surrounded by liquid. She panicked, flailing in place for a long moment before she registered her ability to breathe. Air flowed into her mouth, and she was floating, not drowning.</p><p>The sickly sweet scent of bacta was all around. Everything still hurt, but not as sharply.</p><p>Dimly, she heard voices from outside, then cool fire filled her veins and she drifted off again.</p><p>-</p><p>Cordé woke up again in a dim room, on a soft bed, in a smooth nightgown. She couldn’t see well, but what she did see of her surroundings wasn't anywhere she recognized. Where was she? And how had she come to be there?</p><p>A faint noise teased at the edge of her hearing, and Cordé slid her hand under her pillow on instinct. Despite being somewhere unknown, that instinct was rewarded. There was a small blaster there, like everywhere she rested her head. She closed her hand around it gratefully and tensed herself.</p><p>When the door slid open, she sat up and aimed the blaster at the opening.</p><p>Sabé stood still for long enough that Cordé could recognize her, then she came the rest of the way inside. “Oh, good,” she said, her voice overly light. “No brain damage. I’d worried.”</p><p>Cordé gaped at her, her grip on the blaster slackening as she remembered. She’d been in an explosion. She’d failed Padmé.</p><p>She’d died.</p><p>Hadn’t she?</p><p>“Aren’t I supposed to be dead?” she asked, and slid the blaster back under the pillow. Sabé sat in the chair next to Cordé’s bed and leaned in close to peer at her.</p><p>“Light, 65 percent,” she said, and the glow intensified. Sabé stared deeply into Cordé’s eyes, and Cordé reminded herself she’d just woken up. Sabé wasn’t being romantic, she was checking for concussion.</p><p>Sabé sat back and let out a sigh. “According to the rest of the galaxy, you <i>are</i> dead,” she said. Her tone was still light, but Cordé could hear the emotion under it now. Sabé had been worried. Sabé was still worried.</p><p>She blinked, and forced herself to focus. Between the bacta soak and the painkiller hangover, she wasn’t tracking as well. </p><p>“Padmé thinks I’m dead.” Sabé started to say something, and Cordé grabbed her hand, then continued. “Wait. Where is she?”</p><p>Sabé twisted her hand inside Cordé’s and laced their fingers together. “She’s safe. I think. Pretty sure, anyway.”</p><p>“Sabé,” Cordé said. Sabé looked away but didn’t let go of her hand. “Where?”</p><p>“I’m not sure,” Sabé admitted. “I was busy. The explosion knocked me and my ship off the landing pad, and I had to glide down to safety with one wing gone. Then when I’d made it back up, they’d started moving the bodies, and-”</p><p>Her fingers spasmed, and Cordé remembered. Versé. Versé had been right behind her on the ramp. Not to mention the guards, and the ship’s crew.</p><p>“Versé?” she asked, throat clenching. She knew. Even before Sabé hesitated before shaking her head just a little, she knew.</p><p>“Everyone else was closer to the blast. They thought you’d all been killed. But I felt you breathe, just a little, so I got you to help.” Sabé breathed out, deeply. “By the time you were stable in the bacta, Padmé had already vanished. She went off with a Jedi, that little boy we met so many years ago, Anakin, and I have no idea where she is now.”</p><p><i>I made a choice</i>, she doesn’t say. <i>I chose you. I will always choose you.</i></p><p>Cordé wondered if she could honestly claim she would have made a different one. She loved her job, loved Padmé like a sister, and knew Sabé did as well.</p><p>But she loved Sabé in an entirely different way, and if it had been Sabé lying there near death on that landing pad…</p><p>She shook her head. “We have to find her.”</p><p>Sabé brought their joined hands to her mouth and pressed a kiss to Cordé’s knuckles. “You don’t trust her Jedi protector?”</p><p>“Do you?” Cordé demanded. Sabé didn’t answer right away. That was all the answer Cordé needed.</p><p>“Maybe if it was Master Kenobi,” Sabé said finally.</p><p>Cordé slid her fingers free and swung her legs off the bed. Standing was more of a difficult proposition than she’d expected, but she made it. She took a deep breath as Sabé steadied her and did a mental inventory. </p><p>Her ribs were still tender: the bacta had knit them as close as it could, but they would be sore for a few more days. Her left ankle felt a little weak: same, again, and she made a note to try to avoid having to run.</p><p>There was a sore spot on her back, probably from a puncture wound from the explosion’s shrapnel. But she was alive.</p><p>Cordé was alive, and she still had a job to do. “We have to find Padmé.” she said, and Sabé slid her arm around Cordé’s waist as Cordé turned toward the bureau near the door. “If you don’t trust this Jedi, I certainly don’t, and you know how much Padmé likes to flirt with danger.”</p><p>Sabé swallowed a laugh and helped her over to pick out some clothes. </p><p>“And who’s going to expect a dead woman to show up to guard our lady?” Cordé pointed out.</p><p>Fingers on her cheek, Sabé looked deeply into her eyes again. “Two dead women,” she replied. Cordé gave her a smile, and Sabé kissed her like she thought Cordé would vanish if she was too rough.</p><p><i>I’m alive</i>, Cordé thought again, and kissed her back.</p><p>“Let’s go,” Sabé said, after, and Cordé had never loved her more.</p>
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